TracFone Wireless review: incorrect deduction of minutes 12

I've had my Tracfone since 2011 and never had any problems with it or their customer service UNTIL they canceled my old phone and sent me a new one. Now my mins are being deducted without usage! I never use my cell and only use it for quick texts a couple times a year but it's main service was to be in the car for emergencies. My 60 min card ( purchased every 3 months ) always rolled over and accumulated. I LOVED this! Now... I have been losing up to 100 mins a week. I called Tracfones customer service and then transferred over to a specialist... but, although they were very nice, neither could tell me why I was losing mins. I informed them that on Monday there were 263.12 mins on my phone and yesterday ( Thursday ) there was only 240.34 mins...and I had not used it or rcvd any calls or texts! Now if I am losing 20 mins in 4 days.. that would mean that in 20 days time I would lose another 100 mins! What the heck? Today is my last day before I have to renew, and I ask, ...WHY would I purchase another 60 min card if it the time is going to just disappear? I'm really disappointed as now I must go and try and find another cell phone and another carrier and being it's December - I just do not have the money! AHH! .. There was my Tracfone making the 'sound' and it said '1.--?' mins were deducted!( it was so fast I did not catch the full amount ) Then this phone# showed up "233-3150" This happens all the time! Now the phone does not ring - nor does this # show up as a missed call or recd call! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGG! ~ Frustrated and disappointed is an understatement!

I do not mean to be rude, but Elston, the Tracfone employee who is offering assistance, is not understanding the nature of the problem. I am disappointed with a company that will assist me (perhaps give me some extra minutes, which of course is no skin off their back) to "shut me up" and "make me happy" so that they can continue their unethical practices. There is a systemic problem at Tracfone which needs to be fixed. Appeasing angry customers does not solve that problem but is a cover-up. This is both very bad business practice and is unethical. You know that.

I have experienced the same thing with my Tracfone service. I was not even dialing 411--I made several short calls, and approximately three-four times as many minutes as I used were deducted. Most people probably use so many minutes that they do not check precisely, so Tracfone figures they can get away with docking you a few extra minutes each time. I suppose that is why they do not display the minutes but make it more difficult to find out how many minutes you have left. I will definitely tell all my friends this and will never buy a tracfone phone again.

When I receive a text message and before I open it up, I get a notice that .60 sec have been deducted. So it dose not matter if you open it or not, they automatically deduct. How can I stop this from happening? Judy

I used to have a lot of issue with my phone. I looked online for a solution since Straight Talk's customer service is poor and bad. I found this contact information that helped me a lot. My phone issues were taken care of immediately, without frustrating me. Try it also. The email address is TF.CorpResolutionTeam@tracfone.com. You may also chat with them live for faster assistance at http://bit.ly/18WfOoC.

I have had the same negative experiences with Tracfone. They are horrible!

Same exact situation, my phones lying on my night stand and all of a sudden minutes just started being deducted. I had to call 3x and the first time they gave me 240 minutes back but since then they wont give me any of my minutes back and I call and explain all this and they wont do anything. They are a bunch of crooks.

I also have service thru Tracphone and have noticed that I am losing 2-4 minutes per day (minimum). I've tracked my usage over the last week and have not made or received any calls, have not sent or received any text messages and have not used the browser. I note the minutes when I go to bed at night and when I get up the next day and there are always at least two minutes less. I just checked a voicemail and the screen message said .60 mins were deducted. However, before my checking voicemail, I had 1435.24 minutes and afterward my minutes were 1434.44. Someone's math is way off base! That was .80 minutes deducted! Tracphone must be making a boatload of money from its poor customers! I called customer service and the rep had no idea what was happening. His best guess concerned something about Wi-Fi! On the plus side, he gave me back 100 minutes. I told him if Tracphone was siphoning off 2-4 minutes per day, over a month I would be losing 60 to 120 minutes per month! That's preposterous! That's 1 or 2 hours per month! Tracphone needs to get its act together!

I was on my wifes Tracfone yesterday and made a call to 411 and was told I would be transferred without a charge to the # I was calling about. I was on the phone a total of 2 minutes and after hanging up I noticed she only had 5 minutes left. Before calling 411 there was 55 minutes on the phone. We live in Pennsylvania and I noticed someone else had this happen to them. I called customer service and they had me put differents code in ect. I asked them if they can check the calls that we made and they said there is no way to check them. That is B.S. if cops can obtain cell phone records they should be able to. All in all they told me they could not return the minutes to the phone. I have a Tracefone too and told the Tracefone operater that we are going to go with another service and she had nothing more to say. We will be getting different phones and will not be getting scammed again.

My tracfone locked up on me & wouldn't shut off, dial, nothing - so I popped the battery out, & when I put it back in, my 133 minutes were gone! All my other settings (contacts, alarm clock, etc.) were still there, but my minutes were all gone. Tracfone refused to reimburse me the minutes & told me I needed to buy another phone. I asked if the double minutes I'd purchased would be transferred to the new phone, & they said no, that I'd have to buy another double minute card. They want your money, but they don't want to stand behind their product. All they would've had to do was give me some codes to put the minutes back on my phone, & they wouldn't. Needless to say, I'm going to buy a verizon phone tomorrow - tracfone SUCKS.

Hello my name is Elston and I am a Tracfone Employee and I am here to assist anyone that is having trouble with Tracfone. You can email me at elombillo@tracfone.com

Well, I just had a similar situation, only I didn't notice exactly how many were deducted after using 411, just that A LOT were missing and I had used 411 twice recently for the first time with my Tracfone. I also had customer service reps with no knowledge of what 411 was or an explanation as to why so many minutes were missing. I believe I was missing more like 120 minutes, which meant that my 411 calls were deducted 60 mins each! However, upon speaking to a supervisor, I was credited 150 minutes. She didn't have much of an explanation, but did say 411 can deduct 25 - 60 minutes each use. I questioned why noone can tell me exactly how much or how I was supposed to know that, but she didn't have anymore information on it and suggested as well that I not use it in the future. Even though I felt the customer service agents weren't knowledgable in this instance, I am happy with how they ultimately resolved the issue. I'm sorry they didn't do the same in your instance.